As the Army moves to transform—and transform quickly—it needs adequate, timely and predictable funding, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus said.

Speaking April 22 at an Association of the U.S. Army Coffee Series event, Mingus said the Army was helped by “some additional authorities” in the continuing resolution that runs through Sept. 30, but “yearlong CRs are not good.”

“We should all be screaming at the top of our lungs,” Mingus said, explaining that the Army loses buying power under continuing resolutions, stopgap funding that keeps the budget at the previous year’s levels and prevents new program starts.

“Every taxpayer in the United States of America should demand a budget on time, every year,” he said. “If you want to maximize how we use the money we’re given, we have to have appropriations on time.”

The Army and the rest of DoD have operated under a continuing resolution 18 of the past 20 years, Mingus said. “We ought to all be collectively demanding on-time budgets every year,” he said.

His remarks came as he outlined the Army’s efforts to transform the force for the next fight.

From transformation in contact, the Army’s initiative to put new technologies in soldiers’ hands for testing and feedback, to advances in building a robust, mobile and next-generation network, the Army is moving with a sense of urgency, Mingus said.

Modernizing the network is a top priority, he said. The next fight has many unknowns, “but what we do know is he who makes decisions fastest and shoots fastest is going to win, and the network is central to all of that,” Mingus said.

At the same time, the transformation in contact is moving into its 2.0 phase this year.

The effort began with three infantry brigade combat teams last year and is now extending to two divisions, armored and Stryker brigades and other formations, including in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve.

The lessons learned by those first three brigades fed a force design update that, pending final approval, will lead to a new Modified Table of Organization and Equipment for mobile or medium brigade combat teams, Mingus said. The change is expected by Oct. 1, he said, crediting transformation in contact for driving an MTOE change in just one year.

Transformation in contact 2.0 will use the same logic—infuse units with new equipment, give them time to train with them, validate them at a combat training center rotation and collect their lessons learned, Mingus said. “It’s not just about giving people kit,” he said. “It’s about putting it together in a meaningful way.”

Taking lessons from the fighting in Ukraine, the Army is focused on advances in robotics, unmanned aerial systems, counter-UAS and electronic warfare, Mingus said. “The speed at which we want to move in the EW, counter-UAS, UAS, robotics, autonomy, that absolutely has to keep pace with the way [industry] is going,” he said.